Insulating device for line-wires



(No'ModeL) T. J. SMITH. INSULATING DEVICE FOR LINE WIRES.

INVENTOR, IRA/04,444,. B

61 4 v .7 r i l Patented May 14, 1889.

WITNESSES: %hi ()Mnw MI. ATTORNEY,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS J. SMITH, OF BROOKLYN, NEIV YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE E. S. GREELEY &COMPANY, OF CONNECTICUT.

INSULATING DEVICE FOR LINE-WIRES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 403,491, dated May 14,1889.

Application filed February 19, 1889. Serial No. 300,428. (No modehl ToaZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS J. SMITH, of Brooklyn, county of Kings, Stateof New York, and a citizen of the United. States, have invented anImproved Insulator Device for Lineires, of which the following is afull, clear, and exact description, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

My invention relates to a device for insulating and suspending the lineor circuit wires of telegraphs, telephones, &c.; and my inventionconsists in the parts and their combinations hereinafter described, andas more particularly recited in the claims.

Figure 1 illustrates in perspective elevation an insulator andsuspending device 0011- taining my invention. Fig. 2 shows in elevationa modification of one part of my device. Fig. 3 is a plan of my improvedsectional insulator detached and the sections being shown united. Fig. 4is a side elevation of the same. Fig. 5 is a horizontal section of thesame, taken on line Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is a plan of the same, showing thesections separated and Fig. 7 is an elevation of one of the sections,looking at the internal face thereof.

A is a sectional insulator-ring composed of the sections or halves a anda united flatwise at their divisional line, as shown. The insulator iscomposed of porcelain, glass, rubber, or other suitable non-electricconducting material.

B is a band of metal or other suitable durable material which encirclesand binds together the united sections of the insulatorring.

C is a stem carried by the band, and of any desired length. Itpreferably of metal and integral with the band.

D is an eye carried by the stem upon its free end, and preferablyintegral with the stem, so that the band, stem, and eye are rigidly insuccessive connection with each other.

The band B may be and is desirablyformed of a wire or wires, either inthe form shown in Fig. 1, wherein one of two sections or lengths of wireeach encircle onehalf or part of the circumference of the insulator-ringand the wires are united or joined on oppo site sides of the ring bytwisting them about each other, or in any known equivalent manner, asshown at I), Fig. 1, or by a wire which passes entirely around theinsulator-rim g and has its ends twisted together, as shown in Fig. 2 atb.

The stem C maybe and is desirably formed by the end or ends of the wireor wires which bind the sectional insulator-ring together in the form ofthe band shown, and where the two wires are employed the endsconstituting the stem may be desirably twisted about each other, asshown in Fig. 1.

In Fig. 2 an end of a single wire is shown as constituting the stem C.

The eye D may be formed of the two wires shown in Fig. 1 by curving eachwire semicircularly near the free end of the stem, as shown at (Z, andthen twisting the remaining extremities, as shown at W, beyond the eyethus formed. When a single wire is used for the stem, as shown in Fig.2, it may be bent into a loop at its free end and its extremity twistedabout the shank: part of the stem, as shown at b By means of thedescribed devices a suspensory insulator for telegraph and similarline-wires is constituted which is economical, effective, durable, andreadily and quickly adjustable to the wire by the lineman. In practicethe lineman first unites the sections of the insulator A around theline-wire A; then binds the sections together with the band B,constituted of a piece or pieces of the line-wire clipped therefrom andtwisted together, as set forth; then causes the end or ends of said wirepieces to form the stem C, and finally fashions the eye D upon theextremity of the stem-wire, as described. The necessity for thetransportation by the linemen of any distinctive form of band or strapfor the uniting permanently of the sectional insulator is thus whollyobviated.

It is preferable that a thimble, E, should be inserted in the eye D tostrengthen the eye and withstand abrasion.

The insulator device, constructed as described,is specially adapted tobe suspended by a hook or nail passing through the eye D and seated in atree-limb or wall or post. This is illustrated in Fig. 1. When linewiresare suspended in this general manner, it is desirable that thesuspending devices should have some play upon the object to which theyare suspended, to permit a swing ing motion of the line-wire'withoutstrain upon it or the suspending devices; and one particular advantagearising from myinvention is that this desired playis wholly secured atand by the eye D, and that the stem 0 rigidly unites the band B and eyeD, so that wear upon a joint or uniting-loop between either the stem andband or stem and'eye, or both, as frequently occurs in devices of thischaracter as heretofore constructed, is wholly avoided.

Another feature of my invention consists in providing the contiguousfaces of the united sections of the insulator-ring A with means wherebysaid sections are adapted to be interchangeably locked together, so asto prevent their lateral displacement upon each other when united. Iaccomplish this by forming a boss, of, which may be hemispherical, or,which is preferable, conical, upon one of the said faces of each sectiona and a, and, preferably at or about the center of said face, and acorresponding depression or recess, a in similarposition in the otherface of the section. This is illustrated plainly in Figs. 5, 6, and 7.By this means the sections when united will, by the seating of thebosses a on each in the depressions a in the faces opposed to saidbosses on each, so lock the sections as to prevent their displacementlaterally upon each other, and the bosses and depressionsbeing'similarly located on each section of every insulator the sectionswill be capable of being interchangeably locked together, as described.The advantages of having the sections of the insulator thus lockedtogether both during the mounting of the insulator-ring in a suspensorydevice and afterward, when the line-wire is thereby suspended, areobvious.

It is not my intention to claim, broadly, herein a sectionalinsulator-ring, nor to claim, broadly, an insulator-ring the sections ofwhich are united by an encircling band attached to a suspensory stem, asneither of the same, broadly considered, is novel.

WVhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is

1. An insulator device for line-wires, composed of the sectionalinsulator-ring A and the stem 0, provided at one end with the band 13,serving to encircle and hold together the sections of said ring, and atthe opposite end with the closed or continuous eye D,- serving tosuspend the united parts, substantially as and for the purpose setforth.

2. An insulator device for line-wires, composed of a sectionalinsulator-ring, A, a band, B, consisting of a wire or wires encirclingand holding said ring-sections united and twisted together beyond saidsections, as set forth, and a stem, 0, consisting of the same wire orwires as the said bandand having integral therewith the eye D at thefree end thereof, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

3. A sectional insulator-ring having upon the divisional faces of eachsection, respectively, a boss, a and a corresponding depression, a saidboss and depression'being similarly located on said respective faces ofthe section, whereby the sections may be used interchangeably inconstituting an insulatorring, substantially as and for the purpose setforth:

THOMAS J. SMITH. \Vitness es:

ARDEN S. FITcH, A. T. FALES.

